At both American
Disney theme parks, a
celebration of true love is
underway! And why not? Love has
always been the main ideal
behind many of Disney's greatest
efforts. Whether it be love
towards life and nature or
towards your significant other,
love is one of the many things
that fuels Disney's presence in
pop culture. In honor of that,
today's Gamer Tuesday will be
all about the love, most
specifically, Disney's most
romantic scenes, and how they
were presented in their video
game adaptations.

As I have stated
many times in past Gamer
Tuesdays, the best Disney video
games, specially those based on
the Disney Animated Classics,
are those that loyally follow
the best moments of the film.
They may take some liberties in
order to make the scenes fit in
the playable format (much like
Disney's own movies take
liberties in order to tell a
story on film), but they make
sure to keep the tone and mood
of the scene in their own ways.
My favorite moments tend to be
the romantic ones, where the
main characters express their
love through song, and in turn
become some of the most iconic
moments in Disney history. Here
is a handful of them, along with
how effective their video game
counterparts are in retelling
them.

Cinderella: 'So
this is love' - Kingdom Hearts:
Birth by Sleep (PSP)

I simply can't
get enough of Disney's
Cinderella, released in
1950. It may be very passive and
calm in its plot development,
especially in comparison to
other Disney Princess films, but
it's highly endearing lead
character, beautiful art style,
and romantic music make it one
of my all time favorites. One of
my favorite scenes in the movie
is 'So this is love,' a scene in
which Cinderella is finally
experiencing the one thing that
was lacking in her life: true
love. As she dances with Prince
Charming, the scenery becomes
more and more enchanting, all
thanks to the visual talents of
Mary Blair. As soon as they
almost kiss at the end of the
evening, the clock strikes
midnight, and thus Cinderella
must face reality once more.

Kingdom Hearts:
Birth by Sleep serves as the
prequel story to the entire
Kingdom Hearts franchise, so it
made more than enough sense to
make the new worlds based on
Disney's first three fairy tale
films. Square Enix tried their
hardest to make sure that their
digital Cinderella captured the
romance of the film, but it does
come with a few sacrifices. With
Kingdom Hearts being about the
original story mixing with the
classic Disney stories, the
focus mainly lies on how the
characters are playing along
with the Disney world and
characters. This means that
while we do get to see
Cinderella arrive at the ball
and dance with the prince, it
isn't an elaborate scene. It's a
very brief scene that starts off
by being interrupted by the
Unversed. There aren't even that
many people at the ballroom! One
thing to note, though: both the
environments and the characters
are lovingly rendered in 3D so
at the very least, their
expressions and animation are
beautiful and almost like
classic Disney animation.

Birth by Sleep,
however, does do one thing that
the film never did. At the end
of the Cinderella story, right
after the shoe fits Cinderella,
main character Aqua witnesses
Cinderella being attacked by the
Tremaine family and a haunted
pumpkin, which serves as this
level's boss battle. When the
boss battle is finished, we get
a scene in which Cinderella
finally reunites with Prince
Charming at the castle, and the
two of then embrace in a warm
hug. The original film cuts to
the bells ringing Cinderella's
wedding day, lacking that
wonderful scene. There was,
however, an attempt to try and
close the story with Cinderella
meeting the prince, but it was
ultimately decided that it
wasn't necessary. That's the
slight advantage Birth by Sleep
has over the original film,
otherwise it is the one
adaptation that is the loosest
with the original content.

Birth by Sleep
wouldn't be a game about
Disney's first three films
without the one that literally
started it all for Disney,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Simply put, it is a great film
that combines everything Disney
is known for: humor,
breathtaking animation, horror,
great animation, and, of course,
romance. Snow White is a very
romantic princess, almost to a
fault in the eyes of many. Her
one dream is for her prince to
finally come and take her to his
castle. Looming over her is the
presence of the Evil Queen, who
transforms herself into an old
hag so she could poison Snow
White with an apple.

Needless to say,
the scenes in the last half are
some of the best in the entire
film. Between the Dwarfs
mourning the princess, and Snow
White finally finding her true
love, I always cheer and feel
happy once it is all over. It is
escapist scenes at its finest,
the true epitome of happy
endings. Unlike the Cinderella
story in Birth by Sleep, the
Snow White story is followed
more loyally, featuring every
thing from Snow White's flight
through the woods till true
love's kiss, which has been
recreated almost frame by frame.
Even the way Snow White extends
her arms as she wakes up, and
the prince picks her up is
wonderfully imitated. As far as
faithful Disney recreations go,
this is one of the best I have
seen, and a testament to Square
Enix's commitment to the
animated classic.

Now onto what I
believe is Disney's most
romantic movie ever: Beauty
and the Beast. First
released in 1991 after The
Little Mermaid revived
interest in classic Disney
animation, Beauty and the
Beast tells the story of a
young woman named Belle, who
wishes nothing but to leave her
provincial life behind and find
adventure in the great, wide
somewhere. A few circumstances
lead her to become the prisoner
of a gruesome beast, who is
actually a cursed prince that
must learn to love if he hopes
to become human again. The film
was seen as revolutionary during
its premiere, and for many a
great reason. Beauty and the
Beast presents us a love
story about finding love in a
loveless place, to be redeemed
through compassion and to learn
and see other people through
their actions rather than their
looks. The scene that best sums
up all of the film's ideals is
when Beast and Belle dance in
the grand ballroom, and the two
of them are wearing their
evening best. By this point of
the story, Belle and Beast have
stopped seeing each other as
prisoner and master, but as
friends who have embraced each
other's hearts.

The scene has
become the 'it' moment that
would define the entire film for
a whole generation of Disney
fans and movie goers, so it
comes as no surprise that video
game developers attempting to
tell the story of Beauty and the
Beast as a game try to implement
the famous scene in. One of the
earliest attempts was by Sunsoft
in Beauty and the Beast: Belle's
Quest. Their Beauty and the
Beast game is unique in that
it was two separate games, one
starring the Beast (titled Roar
of the Beast), the other Belle
(Belle's Quest). It is in
Belle's game where you get to
play in the enchanted ballroom.
The main goal is to collect rose
petals that are falling in order
to obtain the highest score at
the end of the level. Truth to
be told, as pretty as this
digital version is, it is a very
standard bonus level. The music
is a very low quality digital
rendition of 'Beauty and the
Beast,' and Belle and the Beast
stiffly move around the
ballroom. It's not completely
awful, though, as the original
scene just set the standards way
too high.

Aladdin:
A Whole New World, Disney's
Aladdin (SNES)

And now we come
to my favorite romantic moment
in any Disney film to date (and
any other film as a matter of
fact). Disney's Aladdin,
while not as big of a game
changer as The Little Mermaid
and Beauty and the Beast
were, was still a very popular
film that reunited the best team
in animation and music. Even if
Howard Ashman had passed away by
the end of the film's
production, his presence is
still felt in the musical score
and songs, many of them penned
by his former partner in music
writing Alan Menken. Their
talents would lead to what is,
in my opinion, the best Disney
song ever: 'A Whole New World.'

Aladdin, now
dressed up as a prince, tries to
impress a jaded Jasmine, who
wishes nothing more than to be
loved for who she is, rather
than for what she represents:
money and power. After many
failed attempts, Aladdin decides
to just be himself as he invites
Jasmine on a magic carpet ride
around the world. And boy what a
magic carpet ride it was. Even
though Aladdin is primarily
known as a comedic film, 'A
Whole New World' represents the
film's highest romantic point as
the two leads share a passionate
love song on top of exotic
locales. I am seriously in love
with this song for what is
represents: the sheer joy of
being in love and sharing brand
new adventures and discoveries
with others.

You would think
that the romantic nature of this
scene would make it hard for
game developers to try and adapt
it into a playable game level,
since it is at its core a date
scene. Yet, Capcom stood to the
plate and greatly delivered in
their video game adaptation of
Aladdin for the Super
NES. Now, there were two
Aladdin games released at
around the same time that follow
the same scenes, but the SNES
edges it because it actually has
a 'A Whole New World' as a
level. Much like in Belle's
Quest, the point of the scene is
to try and collect diamonds and
gems (which means the lyric
'through an endless diamond sky'
is turned into its literal
meaning) as Aladdin and Jasmine
travel through the skies of
Agrabah. But unlike Belle's
Quest, Capcom did their hardest
to accurately represent the
scene in the game. The song used
is 'A Whole New World,' and the
colors and mood of the original
scene are spot on. The scene may
not be as wacky as Genie's lamp
level, or as thrilling as
beating Jafar in his snake form
at the end, but it shines in
that we get the best scene in
the film as a solid level, thus
making the game more rounded in
terms of adaptation prowess.

And that, my
friends, are some of my favorite
romantic Disney moments and
their video game doppelgangers.
As you can see, it takes more
than technology to recreate a
scene, it is all about how you
capture it. There are plenty
more moments to discover, and
all of them have been presented
in various manners. That is
something I will leave up to
you, my dear reader. Happy
Valentine's Day!